Gratituesday: Coffee Dates

As any small business owner can attest, starting your own business swallows all of your possible spare time. For the past two years or so my schedule has been filled more and more with photography-related things (events, meetings, time spent editing) and less and less other things (fun-filled Friday nights, gym time, coffee dates). The biggest area of my life that has been effected has been my social life. I tried my best to keep my priorities straight and unfortunately that resulted in my social life slowly, but surely, dwindling down to the occasional monthly outing and/or family-focused dinner dates.

Luckily, a couple of big things have happened the past few months that have resulted in more hours in my days. The first big thing was me leaving my steady 40hr/week job to pursue photography full time. Suddenly I had 40 extra hours a week to work into my lifestyle. That’s HUGE! The second big thing was Tommy leaving at the beginning of this month. Well, there goes 2-4hrs/night that were once dedicated to him (and shall return to him when he is back this time next year). Suddenly I’ve got 56 extra hours a week to distribute as I wish. (Wow, that’s the first time I’ve added those hours up - and that’s a-crazy-lot!)

Well, I’ve started scheduling gym time into my days, and lots of travel plans are in the works. But the most exciting thing is the time I have been able to give back to my patient and understanding girlfriends. I have been having the best time catching up with my friends over coffee/tea/smoothies and it has been refreshing and borderline therapuetic for me these past few weeks (I hope for them as well). I am blessed to report that they do still want to spend time with me even after weeks (or even sometimes months) have passed that we have not been able to get together.

This week, I am super grateful for these coffee dates and the wonderful people that I can share them with. Absolutely nothing can replace solid, soulful conversation with a very dear friend. I always leave this special time with a skip in my step and a happy, full heart. I have truly missed the experience and I hope I am able to make it more of a priority in my life in the future.

Who would you invite on a coffee date? Tell me over here and be entered to win in this week’s giveaway! I hope this week’s contest winner will be able to use the Coffee gift set to help nurture relationships in his/her life as well.